NEW RESOURCES

FamilySearch: Expanded Ellis Island Immigrant Records 1820-1957 Online. “What do over a 100 million Americans have in common? Their ancestors immigrated through Ellis Island or one of the New York Harbor immigration stations that preceded it. FamilySearch and The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. announced today the entire collection of Ellis Island New York Passenger Arrival Lists from 1820 to 1957 are now available online on both websites giving the opportunity to the descendants of over 100 million arrivals to discover their ancestors quicker and free of charge.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

San Francisco Chronicle: Twitter suspends far-right conspiratorial commentator Alex Jones. “After drawing criticism for inaction, Twitter followed in the footsteps of its technology industry counterparts late Tuesday and suspended the far-right conspiratorial commentator Alex Jones, the company said.” The suspension is for seven days. It is not permanent.

SunSentinel: 3D-printed guns lead Broward libraries to suspend printers’ use. “If you’re looking to print out something in 3-D, don’t bother going to a Broward County library because theirs have been temporarily shelved over concerns they could be used to make a gun or other dangerous weapons.”

The Verge: OneDrive can now automatically backup your PC’s documents, pictures, and desktop folders. “Microsoft is rolling out a new folder protection feature for OneDrive. Folder protection will offer to automatically sync your documents, pictures, and desktop folders to OneDrive to ensure a PC’s important folders are backed up to Microsoft’s cloud service.”

USEFUL STUFF

From HubSpot, because this always comes in handy: Your Bookmarkable Guide to Social Media Image Sizes. “As it turns out, sizing images correctly for social media is no simple task. Even just for Facebook marketing, photo dimensions vary according to where and how it’s shared — from cover photos, to timeline images, to profile pictures.”

MakeUseOf: 11 Chrome Extensions That Help You Stay Healthy at a Desk Job . “If you’re someone (like me) whose job involves sitting in front of a computer all day, you need a solution. Fortunately, there are a few extensions for Google Chrome which can help you be more mindful of your health while working. Here are eleven of them.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Smithsonian Institution Archives: An Intern’s Guide on How to Digitize a Field Book . “What is a field book and how do you digitize one? These were the first two questions I asked when I came on board at the Archives as the Summer 2018 Field Book Project Digitization Intern. During the course of my internship, I discovered the answer to both questions and learned a lot about digitization practices and standards at the Smithsonian.”

MIT Technology Review: How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump. “To understand how digital technologies went from instruments for spreading democracy to weapons for attacking it, you have to look beyond the technologies themselves.” A deep and scary dive.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: Court blocks FCC from cutting broadband subsidies in tribal lands. “The FCC has hit a snag in its plan to curb broadband subsidies for low-income homes. A DC appeals court has issued a stay order temporary blocking the regulator from limiting the $25 monthly Lifeline subsidy in tribal lands, arguing that native groups and small carriers are likely to win their case opposing the cuts.”

CNET: Instagram users’ accounts reportedly being hijacked in spreading hack. “Increasing numbers of people are reportedly experiencing the same Instagram hack, which logs them out and changes their personal details. Hundreds of people have reported being hacked since the beginning of August, according to Mashable, which highlighted similarities between the attacks.”

The Register: Oracle: Run, don’t walk, to patch this critical Database takeover bug. “Oracle is advising customers to update their database software following the discovery and disclosure of a critical remote code execution vulnerability. The flaw, dubbed CVE-2018-3110 was given a CVSS base score of 9.9 (out of 10) and Oracle warns that successful exploit of the bug ‘can result in complete compromise of the Oracle Database and shell access to the underlying server.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

National Library of Medicine: Revealing Data: Why We Need Humans To Curate Web Collections . “In this Revealing Data series we explore data in historical medical collections, and how preserving this data helps to ensure that generations of researchers can reexamine it, reveal new stories, and make new discoveries. Future researchers will likely want to examine the data of the web archive collections, collected and preserved by libraries, archives, and others, using a wide range of approaches, to document unfolding events.” Good stuff from Alexander Nwala. Good morning, Internet…

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